On the Road: Christmas in Washington

It had been a long time since we last spent Christmas away from home.  Over the past few years, our tradition had been to spend Christmas Day here in Vermont, then travel down to visit my parents in Washington, DC the next day.  But my father lobbied for us to come earlier so that we could attend his Christmas concert.

via Choral Arts Society of Washington

As discussed in a previous post, my father has sung with the Choral Arts Society of Washington for nearly 40 years.  The annual Christmas concert at the Kennedy Center was an important family tradition growing up.  Neither my wife nor our daughter had ever been to one so I suppose it was high time.

The group has a relatively new conductor.  Founder Norman Scribner retired in spring 2012 after 47 years and was replaced by Scott Tucker, most recently of Cornell University.  Choirs generally reflect the personality of their directors and a more relaxed, playful atmosphere is quite apparent in the new regime.  This year's concert was sponsored by the Italian Embassy so Italian music was predominant, including works by Andrea Gabrieli (1532-1585) and Salomone Rossi (ca. 1570-1620), a Jewish composer entirely new to me.  Also on the program were selections from Benjamin Britten's A Ceremony of Carols and Handel's Messiah, for both of which the Choral Arts Society was joined by the astonishingly talented Children's Chorus of Washington.

Three highlights for me:

1. Holst's sublime setting of "In the Bleak Midwinter," a piece I have sung myself - hard not to tear up for that one.
2. My father's performance in the smaller Chamber Chorus.  He claimed he was nervous but it certainly didn't show.
3. The sing-along at the end of the concert, a long-standing tradition.  In addition to the usual choral power pieces like "O Come, All Ye Faithful" and "Hark! the Herald Angels Sing," we sang verses of both "White Christmas" and "Silent Night" in Italian.

Overall, it was a very short visit - just two full days wedged between our travel days.  It was supposed to be three but the ice storm here in Vermont held us back a day.  So, not too much time for the touristy stuff.

My parents did introduce us to a new (to us) restaurant on Monday evening: Napoleon Bistro & Lounge.  It's a short walk from their apartment so they've been many times.  However, the restaurant has just hired a new chef so the menu was new to all of us.  My Wife and I split the pate appetizer, then I had the hangar steak.  I also got a bite of the chocolat fondant for dessert.  All were lovely.  She had the duck confit, but thought I'd ordered better - that doesn't usually happen.  The raviolini was a big hit with Our Girl.  She cleaned her plate.

Back to the land of ice and snow on Thursday.  It was a nice visit - short but relaxed.  Hopefully, we'll be back again before too long.